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The American Spirit 

T 



A PATRIOTIC ADDRESS BY 

MERCER GREEN JOHNSTON 

RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEWARK 






By tr^ncr 
The i > '• 



The American Spirit 



A PATRIOTIC ADDRESS BY 

MERCER GREEN JOHNSTON 

If 

RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEWARK 



Delivered at the Annual Service of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the 
American Revolution in Commemoration of the Surrender at Yorktown, held in 
Trinity Church, Newark, New Jersey, October 18th, 1914. 



■<rr3 



"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can 
repair. The event is in the hand of God." — Washington. 

"Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate 
peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this con- 
duct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It 
will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a 
great nation, to give to mauKind the magnanimous and too novel 
example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and be- 
nevolence." — Washington. 

"The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure 
and immutable principles of private morality. * * * The pro- 
pitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that 
disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself 
has ordained." — Washington. 

"Overgrown military establishments * * * under any form 
of government are inauspicious to liberty." — Washington. 



The American Spirit 



Shakespeare puts these fine words in the mouth of 
one of his characters in "Coriolanus": 

I do love 

My counti'y's good with a respect more tender, 
More holy and profound, than mine own life. 

I would not speak boastfully, especially in times like 
these when patriotism is being tried in the fire on so 
many bloody battlefields, but if I know the spirit within 
me that often makes my heart beat so wildly and sends the 
tears to my eyes when I behold with my mind's eye, and 
muse upon, my Country, I could make those words my 
very own without confusion of face or fear of it. Doubt- 
less there is a difference between religion and patriotism, 
but in my own case it w^ould be difTicult for me to define 
it. Oftentimes it would be impossible for me to say 
whether the emotion that surges in my heart and sways 
me is religious or patriotic. Probably the correct analysis 
of such an emotion would show it to be the product of 
religion saturated with patriotism, or vice versa. It is a 
never-ending source of comfort to me to know that the 
"Strong Son of God" wept over Jerusalem. He is dearer 
to me by reason of those tears and the heartbreaking 
words that follow^ed them. No true patriot should miss 
the joy of knowing the Man Christ Jesus, who knew so 
well w^hat was in a patriot's heart. 

Holding such sentiments, you gentlemen of the New 
Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution 
will accept my words at their face value when I tell you 
that I am altogether glad to have your patriotic organiza- 
tion again within this building, whose walls once echoed 
to the drums and fifes of a band of men, our honored sires, 
whose hearts God touched, and into whose breasts He 
breathed the breath that gave this Nation a living soul. 
You are welcome here to-day, and you need have no fears 
of wearing your welcome out. ^Yhen one crosses the 
threshold of a Spaniard one hears the hospitable greeting. 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



"Esta es sii casa, Seiior — This is your house, Sir." As 
rector of this church I say, "This is your house, gentle- 
men." It certainly is, for it is your Heavenly Father's 
house, and we have good authoriy for believing that in so 
far as we are His what is His is ours. He is every ready 
to divide with us His living. Indeed, all that He has is 
ours. 

You have asked me to speak to you again. I thank you 
for the opportunity, for my heart is surcharged with 
thoughts that deeply concern the "general welfare" of 
this Nation; this Nation "conceived in liberty;" this 
Nation brought to the birth by the blood of the brains and 
broken bodies of those whose dear memories you seek 
to keep green; this Nation established to "secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," and 
"dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 
equal." 

The beloved Dr. Arnold of Rugby, than whom the 
past century hardly produced a nobler example of a 
Christian and patriot, used to say to those who bade him 
hold his peace when at the sight of some wrong-doing the 
"fire burned" and his heart was hot within him, "I must 
speak or I will burst." I trust that I am not wanting in a 
"decent respect" for the opinions of my fellow-country- 
men who by virtue of their offices, whether in State or 
Church, are charged with special responsibility in times 
like these. I do not lightly set aside their expressed 
wishes. I have read and re-read the Thirty-ninth Psalm, 
beginning, "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I 
sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a 
bridle while the wicked is before me." But over and over 
again I find myself in the perilous condition of Dr. 
Arnold: I must speak or I will burst. So far as what I 
have said, or shall say, concerning the things that are in 
the saddle and in the air and in the minds and hearts of 
men everywhere, needs apology, that confession must 
serve as such. If more need be said let it be this: That 
to me it seems as little praiseworthy for an American, who 
is the real thing, to be a "dumb dog" in 1914 as it was to 
be a "dumb dog" in 1775 or in 18G1, let the consequences 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



be what they may. It is altogether un-American to be 
afraid to speak ah)ud convictions upon which one, after 
deep deliberation, is ready tc act irrevocably. It would 
be damnable treason to the highest hopes of America if 
the expectation of favors to come were in any degree 
responsible for this dumbness. 

We are met here to-day to remind ourselves that this 
is the one hundred and thirty-third anniversary of the 
surrender at Yorktown of Lord Cornwallis, an English- 
man, to General Washington, an Englishman re-born an 
American six years before this event, and to think such 
thoughts as are suitable to such an occasion at such a 
time as this. 

Let me speak to you of the American Spirit. Whence 
came this Spirit? W^ho helped to bring it into being? 
Who were its enemies and w^ho were its friends in the 
beginning? Just what is the significance of this Spirit? 
Who are its enemies and who are its friends now? ^^^lat 
is the future of this Spirit? What is the duty of its friends 
and lovers to-day? 

This Nation, said Abraham Lincoln, was "conceived 
in liberty." If it was, and a large part of mankind be- 
lieves that it w^as, the American Spirit came forth from 
God. It was written by James, a servant of God and of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, that "Every good gift and every 
perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the 
Father of lights." Surely if this Nation w^as conceived 
in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men 
are created equal, and exists to the end that "government 
of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth," this Nation is a good gift to all 
mankind, and comes well within the meaning of St. James. 

It is not recorded that at the birth of the American 
Spirit angels sang, "Peace on earth, good will to men"; 
but it is a fact that at its conception a great bell, on which 
was inscribed "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land 
unto all the inhabitants thereof," was heard to ring, and 
that its joyful sound has been repeated not only through- 
out all this land but throughout all lands, and that the 
music of these bells brings to the minds of those who sit 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



in darkness and the shadow of death the song that the 
angels sang when the Prince of Peace was born. 

Out of whose loins came this American Spirit? This 
is an American Question that every genuine American 
ought to be able to answer, and about which there should 
be no dissimulation. What answer shall we make? 

Before setting down our answer, let me ask a few 
other questions that have a bearing upon this answ^er. 
In what man, far and away more than any other, did the 
American Spirit incarnate itself in the beginning, and 
make itself manifest not only in the American Colonies 
but throughout the whole w^orld? There is only one 
answer. But for George Washington there would have 
been no American Nation. Well, what think you of Wash- 
ington, whose son was he? Under what flag was he 
born? Under w^hat flag did he live the first thirty-three 
years of his life? Under w^hat flag did he serve gallantly 
prior to 1775? Surely no one would say that Washington 
was a son of France, or a son of Germany. Surely no one 
will deny that Washington w'as a son of England. In 
a very much more intimate sense than Paul was a Roman, 
Washington was an Englishman down to the day that the 
Declaration of Independence was signed, and he never 
ceased to be proud of the blood of his English ancestors 
that flowed in his veins. And this is a source of just 
pride, it may be said in passing, shared by every other 
American w^ho has the right to it. It would seem that 
no man of intelligence could expect to win the head or 
the heart of America by "foaming out" songs of hate 
against England.* Let me go further and ask: Whose sons 
were the signers of the Declaration of Independence with- 
out a single exception? Undoubtedly they were the sons 
of England until the moment they put their hands to that 
paper if not until after the acknowledgment of the inde- 
pendence of the Colonies by England seven years later. 
Practically every drop of blood in their veins was English 
blood. Let me go on and ask. Whose sons were the 
signers of the Constitution of the United States? To this 

* See "A Chant of Hate Against England," by Ernst Lissauer, 
N. Y. Times, Oct. 15, 1914, republished from Jugend. 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



question the same answer must be given. The signers of 
the Constitution only ceased to be EngUshmen when they 
wrested from their short-sighted English brethren the 
right to order their own affairs. 

Returning to our question, Out of whose loins came 
the American Spirit? is there any other answer to make 
than this: That the American Spirit, which came forth 
from God, which was "conceived in liberty," came out of 
the loins of England, the Mother of the English-speaking 
race? The Declaration of Independence is just as much 
the work of the sons of England as is Magna Charta. The 
War of the Revolution was jusi af much a war between 
brethren as any of the civil wars in England, or our own 
Civil War; and so far as incivility is concerned, there is 
little or no choice between any of them, and if there is 
the odds are not in favor of our own Civil War. 

In making this honest confession, which it w^ould be 
good for the soul of every American to make, no claim 
is made for the immaculateness of the nation out of whose 
loins the American Spirit came. I am laboring under no 
delusions as to the shortcomings or the overreachings of 
England, any more than I am laboring under such delu- 
sions as to America. England's history written by her 
own historians is an open book, and therein her faults 
are fearlessly set down. But with all her faults, with 
all her backslidings from the better way, there is one thing 
that cannot be denied her by those who are intelligent 
enough to read the English language, and honest enough 
to acknowledge what they find written in it, and that is 
that beyond all other nations, prior to the birth of this 
Nation, she w^as a well-spring of human liberty, and that 
it was through her that God gave birth to this Nation "con- 
ceived in liberty." If before that birth could take place 
it was necessary that a sword should pierce through her 
heart it was not the first time that the giving of a Divine 
gift to humanity was accompanied by such an experience. 

In answ^ering the question. Whence came the Ameri- 
can Spirit? answer has already been made in part to 
the question. Who helped to bring this Spirit into being? 
But several things remain to be said. It is unquestionably 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



true that the events which led up to the Revolution, and 
the Revolution itself, which brought the American Spirit 
into being, were in the main what might be called family 
affairs of those who dwelt under the British flag and who 
spoke the English language. In the very document that 
declared America's independence of England the expres- 
sion "our British brethren" occurs, and no American who 
comprehends and cherishes the best American traditions 
and ideals is disturbed by the fraternal acknowledgment. 
Nevertheless the fact must not be lost sight of that Hol- 
land, France and Germany made minor contributions to 
the population of the British Colonies which afterwards 
became the Thirteen American States, and that these ele- 
ments, before they were entirely Anglicized, helped meas- 
urably to bring the American Spirit into being, and be- 
came a part of the real American people. But such help 
as they rendered was of a comparatively humble sort. 
Philip Schuyler, of Dutch descent, is the only man not 
of English descent* among the Colonists who took 
anything like an important part in the Revolution. 
Out of the very loins of England came the strong men 
who led in the resistance to the encroachment upon their 
rights as Englishmen that resulted in the birth of this 
Nation. The two leading Colonies in this bold business 
were Virginia and Massachusetts and a glance at the map 
will show what a firm hold on the hearts of the people 
of these Colonies England had. The names of the counties 
and rivers and older cities and towns are English to the 
last degree. Yorktown, on the York River, York County, 
Virginia, is a fair sample. Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, 
Plymouth, Bristol, Worcester, Hampshire, Hampden and 
Berkshire — so run the names of the counties of Massa- 
chusetts.* The first Americans were all British by birth 

* The speaker is of Scotch-Irish descent. His paternal an- 
cestor came to America from Scotland about 1727. It need 
hardly be said that the words England and English are not used 
in an exclusive sense, but include at least all of Great Britain. 

* In the list of the 100 larg-est American cities the only- 
names that appear are English, Indian, French and Spanish. 
The only exceptions seem to be such names as Philadelphia, 
Memphis, Troy, etc., for which Americans of English descent 
are responsible, and Schenectady, named by Americans of Dutch 
•descent. 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



or by adoption. The Dutch, the French, the Germans in 
America were all British, and contentedly so, before they 
were Americans. 

Who were the enemies, and who were the friends of 
the American Spirit in the beginning? The Declaration 
of Independence was leveled at the head of George III, 
of the House of Hanover, King of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, and rightly so. "A Prince, whose character is thus 
marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit 
to be the ruler of a free People." Thus ran the Declara- 
tion, and I would not alter a word of it. I am not in the 
least disposed to defend this thick-skulled King whose 
great-grandfather England had imported from Germany, 
nor those dull subjects of his who never could under- 
stand the viewpoint of their brethren over the sea. The 
England of George III thoroughly deserved what she got, 
and I yield to no man in honoring the men who meted 
out the well-earned punishment to her. As a boy I 
reveled in the slaughter of Red Coats, and I have never 
repented of the "bluggy" joy. I am afraid that I was not 
as thankful as a Christian should have been when I dis- 
covered a few days ago that only 156 Red Coats were 
killed and 32G wounded in the Battle of Yorktown! But 
it is only fair to say that compared with his contemporary 
Frederick the Great, of whom the Prussians are very 
proud, George III was an exceedingly mild-flavored and 
domesticated sort of a tyrant. Had the American 
Colonists, in an evil hour, appealed to Frederick for help, 
and had he responded to their appeal (for other than 
altruistic motives), and then decided to stay and rule 
over them, as he certainly would have done, the Colonists 
w^ould have pined for the good old days of King George as 
the Israelites pined for the flesh-pots of Egypt. If the 
world had been searched in the year 1776 for the ruler 
least in sympathy with the American Spirit it would have 
been difficult to find one who would have met the require- 
ments more perfectly than this Frederick of the House of 
Hohenzollern whose ministers were mere clerks to give 
effect to his absolute will, and whose political theories 
were all pinned together with swords and bayonets. 



iO THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



^Yhile the majority of insular Englishmen supported 
King George in his overbearing attitude toward the 
Colonies, we must not forget that London never approved 
of it, that London plead for America, and that Chatham 
(called "that trumpet of sedition" by the King) and Fox 
and Burke and Pitt and Shelburne lifted up their voices 
in favor of the Colonies, and finally carried the British 
public with them; nor must we forget that it is recorded 
of Washington, in England's most popular history, that 
"No nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a nation's 
life,"* and that altogether the most intelligent and most 
popular appreciation of our Country ever written is the 
late Ambassador Bryce's "American Commonwealth." 

And it is well to remind ourselves that the cause of 
Independence w^as not overwhelmingly popular even 
among the Colonists themselves. We used to be taught in 
school that the Spirit of '76 was so permeating and con- 
tagious that practically everybody in America caught it. 
We know now that many escaped it, and that the struggle 
for Independence was never supported by anything like all 
of the Colonists, and for a good part of the time w^as 
supported by perhaps a minority of them. 

The great friends of the American Spirit in early days 
were the French. But for France that Spirit would have 
been stamped out, and the cause of liberty in the world 
set back a hundred years. The debt that we Americans, 
and all true lovers of liberty, owe to France is incalcul- 
able. I know^ that mixed motives brought France to 
America's help, but in the person of LaFayette she rose to 
her highest and came to us in our dire distress, and 
dared to the uttermost in our behalf; and -from the day 
of his coming to the end of the war America never looked 
to France in vain. The debt we owe France has never 
been paid. The passing of LaFayette and the rise of 
Napoleon is partly responsible for this. But now that 
France is again at Freedom's side, if in some hour of 
crushing disaster she turned her eyes towards us and 
said, "Help me, or I perish," and we turned a deaf ear 



Green's History of the English People, Vol. IV, p. 254. 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 11 



to her — supposing her cause to be just — I would be 
ashamed ever again to set foot on French soil. It is devil's 
doctrine, no matter what pretentious claims to culture its 
preachers may make, that salvation for a nation lies in 
taking all and giving nothing. That which is damnation 
for the individual can never be salvation for the State in 
a moral universe. 

But what, you may be thinking, of the German ele- 
ment in the War of Independence? Of course, in the 
main, it was very strongly against America. Hardly a 
word of sympathy, except from the great Kant, who 
"embraced the cause of the American colonists with all 
the energy of his vast intellect," came from Germany. 
Klopstock and Lessing said a few favorable things. And 
Steuben and DeKalb, of honored memory, came to us, 
not because of any friendship on their part or the part 
of their countries for the cause of Independence, but 
through the persuasion of some of our good French 
friends. But they came, and did splendid service, and 
every true American honors their names. Steuben was 
at Yorktown with LaFayette and Washington, and hap- 
pened to be in command when Cornwallis decided to 
surrender. De Kalb was killed at Camden, South Carolina, 
under the most heroic circumstances. No doubt some of 
the German colonists of Pennsylvania served in the rank 
and fde of the Continental Army. So far as I know none 
distingviished themselves. Greene, in "The German Ele- 
ment in the War of Independence," does not speak of 
them. This is the bright side of the picture. The dark 
side is that first and last Germany furnished about thirty 
thousand mercenaries to enable George HI to crush the 
American Spirit. The large majority of these German 
mercenaries came from Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Hanau, 
but Brunswick, Waldeck, Anspach and Anhalt-Zerbst also 
had a hand in this shameful business of furnishing hire- 
lings to do battle against the American Spirit. 

We come now to the consideration of the question. 
Just what is the significance of the American Spirit? 
Already this question has been partly answered. Indeed, 
it is quite impossible to speak of this Spirit without dis- 



12 THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



closing somewhat of its meaning. But something must be 
added to what has been said. 

In his book on "The Spirit of America," Dr. Henry 
Van Dyke, a real American of Dutch descent, now ambas- 
sador to Holland, says: "This republic continues to exist 
and develop along the normal lines of its own nature, 
because it is still animated and controlled by the same 
Spirit of America which brought it into being to embody 
the soul of the people." He then goes on to say: "I am 
quite sure that there are few, even among Americans, who 
appreciate the literal truth and the full meaning of this 
last statement. It is common to assume that the Spirit 
of 1776 is an affair of the past; that the native American 
stock is swallowed up and lost in our mixed population; 
and that the new United States, beginning, let us say, at 
the close of the Civil War, is now controlled and guided 
by forces which have come to it from without. This is 
not true even physically, much less is it true intellectually 
and morally. The blended strains of blood which made 
the American people in the beginning are still the 
dominant factors in the American people of to-day. * * * 
The native stock has led and still leads America." ^ To 
substantiate this statement he calls attention to the fact 
that 86 per cent, of the 16,395 persons included in "Who's 
Who in America" m^e native Americans, and that of the 
men elected to the presidency of the United States there 
has been only one whose ancestors did not belong to 
America before the Revolution — James Buchanan, a 
Scotch-Irishman, whose father came in 1783 — and all of 
the presidents except four trace their line back to 
Americans of the seventeenth century. It is notew^orthy 
in this connection that all of our presidents except 
Van Buren and Roosevelt are of English descent, and the 
same w^ould seem to hold to an equal degree in the case 
of our vice-presidents. 

What Dr. Van Dyke says is plainly true, and any new- 
comers who act upon a contrary theory are riding to an 
unhappy fall. If they are wise in their generation they 



Ten of twenty-seven presidents have come frona Virginia and 



Massachusetts 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 13 



will not attempt to remove the ancient landmarks of this 
Nation, or drag its anchors to other moorings, or choke 
the well-springs of American liberty, or obstruct the well- 
worn channels through which American feeling flows. 
That were to woo the whirhvind and to court the light- 
ning. America is for Americans — real, unqualified 
Americans.! The Americans who built this Nation upon 
ideals of their own choosing, and who from the beginning 
have rightly dominated it, and rightly dominate it now, 
have as little intention of allowing newcomers to substi- 
tute for the ancient American ideals new and strange 
ideals that have come newly up as they had of permitting 
the American Union to be rent in twain. This ought to 
be plain enough to any one who knows even a little of 
the history of the English-speaking race to recall even a 
fjuondam Columbia professor, or a recently imported 
Harvard professor, or even a German professor at large, 
from the error of his way. Of course, this is not a pleasant 
fact to make mention of; but it is a fact, a flint-like fact, 
and it is foolish to blink it. "Lord Bacon has told me that 
a great question w^ould not fail of being agitated at one 
time or another," declared Chatham. It is a vital 
American fact, and no amount of bombast, and no amount 
of braggadocio, and no amount of bamboozling, and no 
amount of button-holing, or bartering, or bulldozing, from 
either side of the Atlantic, from court or camp, from 
chamber or campus, can alter this uncompromising fact 
whose roots are buried deep in the brains and hearts of 
those who speak, because they love it and what it stands 
for best, the tongue of Wyclif and Knox and More, Shake- 
speare and Milton, Hampden and Eliot and Pym, Black- 
stone and Marshall, and Washington, Jefferson, Webster 
and Lincoln. 

I am sorry to have to say this. But the blatancy of 
those among us who bear the name of American without 



' "Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that coun- 
try has a rig-ht to concentrate your affections." — Washing-ton — 
Farewell Address. 

The Kaiser is reported to have said to a so-called "German- 
American:" "I know what a German is, and I know what an 
American is. I do not know what a German- American is." 



14 THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



really believing in the vital thing for which the name 
stands, makes it impossible for me to be silent. Let those 
whom the cap fits put it on : I only refer to those of whom 
what I say is really true. 

For what, further, does the American Spirit stand? 
What says the Declaration? Among other things it speaks 
of "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." It 
speaks of this Nation's right to a "separate and equal 
station" in the family of nations. It says nothing of this 
Nation's right to a "place in the sun" — or the limelight. 
The American Spirit holds no commission from God to 
spread American Ideals in either hemisphere with the 
sword, and it would regard as an intolerable nuisance to 
be abated any nation that claimed such a commission to 
so spread its ideals or "culture." It speaks of national 
rectitude, and a people's sacred honor. The American 
Spirit wastes no affection on the ambitious Bonaparte, but 
it abhors the inexcusable treachery he experienced thrice 
at the hands of those who called themselves his allies and 
went forth to battle wath him; and it does not look 
unmoved upon the "'deep damnation" of Belgium's 
"taking off." The Declaration speaks wdth indignation of 
those who attempt to render "the military independent of 
and superior to the Civil Power," and the American 
Spirit recognizes, neither within its own borders nor 
beyond them, the brutal doctrine that Might makes Right.i 
It dismisses forever from the seat of its affections kings 
and emperors and such. It puts no trust in princes — even 
those "O. K'd" by "exchange professors," and it is very 
suspicious of any man calling himself an American who 
does, especially if he has been feeding upon royal dainties. 
The American Constitution begins, "We, the people," and 
there is not a more glorious phrase in the literature of 
politics. The American Spirit knows that it will be the 
beginning of the tragic end when those great words, 
bought at a great price, cease to mean the great thing they 
meant to the founders of this Nation. 

I must now hasten to a close. Need I stop to answ^er 



^ The "Macht Politik" of Treitschke, the Kaiser, the Crown 
Prince, Bernhardi et al. 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 15 

the question, Who are the enemies, and who are the 
friends, of the American Spirit to-day? Those at home 
must answer for themselves. Some have already 
answered, and are under suspicion — suspicion, shall I say, 
of not having understood just what they were about when 
they took out their papers? Now is the time for them to 
consider. I trust that they may decide to become real 
Americans and remain. But if they find that they really 
prefer the government of an "irresponsible," irremovable 
autocrat to the government the American Spirit is endeav- 
oring to work out, we shall not find fault with them, either 
if they fly to the succor of the would-be Caesar, or if they 
possess their souls in patience while among us and do not 
foolishly try to interfere with the full and free expression 
or w^orking of the American Spirit. 

If there are those among us who believe in the Kaiser 
and his "Welt Politik," let them say so. Let them disport 
themselves. Nobody objecls to that. This is no Kaiser's 
Land.- This is the People's Land. This is America. This 
is a free country, one of whose most valued assets is 
freedom of speech; and I go farther than most men I meet 
in Newark, or New York, or Paterson, or elsewhere, in my 
belief in that. But what mature Americans do object to is 
the everlasting and bad-tempered outcry by Americans in 
the making against the utterances by the American press 
and American writers and speakers of sentiments and con- 
victions that it would be passing strange for an American 
of mature mind and sound heart not to hold. 

Let us take a hurried look abroad. Is Germany a 
real friend of the American Spirit to-day? If one could 
appeal from "Philip drunk to Philip sober," the question 
might be debatable. There was a Germany, not drunk 
with ambition or panic-stricken with fear, and not savage 
with hatred of those we can never be persuaded to hate. 



- The moment the present war bea^an 79 German Socialist pa- 
pers were suppressed, and shortly afterwards the one remaining 
Socialist paper of consequence suffered the same fate. 

The Kaiser is reported to have said not long ago that the best 
course for Germans to pursue who did not approve of his way of 
doing things was to leave Germany. This would be in line with 
German policy in the past. A great many of the Germans who 
came to Texas, among other States, were political refugees. 



16 THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 



for which there was an increasing regard in America. 
But that Germany is now as though it were not. And 
that the dominating power in Germany that to-day holds 
the great body of the German people in the grasp of its 
mailed fist is not, and cannot be, the friend of the 
American Spirit, admits of no debate. These things are 
contrary the one to the other. The spirit of the German 
War Party, which now permeates and dominates the 
w^hole nation, is the very antithesis of the American Spirit, 
both in its contemplated enslavement of the German 
people under the Hohenzollerns, and its contemplated 
enslavement of the world under the nation on w^hose neck 
the heel of the Hohenzollerns rests. The present domi- 
nating spirit in Germany is a "throw-back" in civilization 
of more than a hundred years.* 

Is England a real friend of the American Spirit? 
Now that she has learned the lesson she needed to be 
taught at the hands of her over-sea children, I believe 
with all my heart she is. We are about to celebrate a 
hundred years of peace between England and America. 
The progress in the cause of freedom made in England 
during these years has been immense. There is great 
reason to believe that freedom has as little to fear from 
England as from any nation. Indeed, the downfall of 
England at this hour w^ould be as great a loss as the cause 
of freedom could sustain. The integrity of England is 
essential to America. Were her integrity threatened, the 
tide of feeling among us w^ould rise so high and run so 
swift and strong that the bark that bears our governmental 
neutrality would be swept out to sea and sunk and once 
again it would be found that blood is thicker than water. 

What of the future of the American Spirit? I believe 
it is safe — but not so safe that those who love it, and would 
not willingly live in a world from wdiich it w as banished, 
can afford to go to sleep. Eternal vigilance is the price 



* See "Germany and the Next W"ar," by F. von Bernhardi; also 
article on "Treitschke" in Encyclopedia Britannica; also articles on 
Germany and the Kaiser in same; also "Germany and England," by 
J. O. Cramb; and "Pan-Germanism," by Roland G. Usher. See 
also files of N. Y. Times and Outlook, especially latter for Oct. 21, 
article "Gerniania, 1914." 



THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 17 



of the things for which that Spirit stands. Even at home, 
there are those who as yet know little of the value of these 
precious things. Abroad, many of our dearest dreams and 
hopes for a great family of nations in which Mercy and 
Truth shall meet together, and Righteousness and Peace 
shall kiss each other, and of which the Prince of Peace 
shall not be ashamed, are made light of if not set at 
naught. 

^Yhat is our duty? Circumstances must decide. If 
this w ar should go the way the overwhelming majority of 
Americans trust it will not go, all that the American Spirit 
holds dear would be threatened. 

The Prince of Peace said upon a memorable occasion: 
"My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were 
of this world, then would my servants fight." The Prince 
of Peace knows that the Republic of the American Spirit, 
out of w^hich He has never been asked to depart, and in 
whose counsels His voice carries increasing weight, is of 
this world. Need I sav more? 



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